Spacebus: Diaspora

Near a binary star system in a part of the universe close to nowhere, far from the ancestral beginnings of the combatants, the beleaguered forces of Darvon Defense Force Seven prepared to engage invading Comptron plasma ships.
Battle was soon to be joined. They came from opposite worlds and would meet at a turning around the twin stars, a benign, aging yellow star dancing with her sibling, a magnetic white dwarf star. Once as big as her sister, first the dwarf swelled into a red giant, and then her fires flickered out. Unable to sustain her size without the pressure of the nuclear oven to offset gravity, she collapsed upon herself into a terra-sized midget
The attack came from the left and above the Darvon defense force's position. The enemy battle group came around the dwarf and out of the big reddish sun's glare, shrouded in a haze of magnetic scatter, leaving the Darvon ships blind visually and electronically to the attackers for precious seconds into the first foray. The lead ship of Force Seven was the first casualty as a plasma beam from one of the Comptron ships blew it apart in a ball of heat and energy. The ship nearest its position was also lost in the explosion.
The Ensign at the back of flight wing three watched as Blue Group continued to be decimated, gaining no respite even when the Comptrons should have been intent on defending against the Darvon missile salvo. As the young officer watched, he saw two more of Blue Group's ships burnt to destruction by Comptron laser fire. Then he saw a bright shaft of laser light reach toward his ship. He spoke a few quick, tense words into the mike to the leader of his flight as he took evasive action.
The hull was breached just behind him. He was semi-conscious as his suit sealed around him automatically in time to save him from space exposure, but the ship was a holed and dented wreckage floating motionless in space amid pieces of air frame and trailing hydraulic lines, electronic tendrils and debris like a once living thing trying again to put down roots in the all too thin ether.
It seemed that all was lost for the intrepid young man when the big, bulbous ship came on the scene, decelerating at an alarming rate. The man at the controls stood watching intently as he approached, a man out of place in this system, with gray eyes and graying at the temples. Signs of age in a young man's war, uncommon signs anywhere in this system where the ravages of time did not manifest themselves

Dettagli